Independent UX Consultant & Mobile Specialist. Ask me anything about pursuing a career in UX or how to implement user-centered strategies in your business!

I'm Ana, a UX strategist and Conversion Optimization specialist who offers consultations & training to goal-oriented businesses and individuals who want to grow the user-centered way.

I also help aspiring designers and UX professionals in achieving their career goals.

I fell in love with Design approximately 10 years ago and made the shift to UX a bit later. During my career, I've worked on many freelance projects, and also in full-time roles both in-house and agency-side. At the moment, I'm having the opportunity of a lifetime, working for Google as a Mobile UX Specialist! The path has not always been easy, and I love sharing my experience and knowledge with others who are trying to pursue a career in the same field. Everything is possible with a little bit of dedication and lots of passion.

There are many skills that will be specific to the role but some must-haves: Design thinking, empathy, user-centered design process (it's important that the candidate understands the whole process even if the role is specific), problem-solving skills, communication, collaboration & team-work.

I'm SO proud and thankful to have had a chance to work for Google, and the whole experience surpassed my expectations. I'm based in Portugal and was hired for a very specific purpose and role. This was during a time I was mostly dedicated to my independent consulting business, but I knew I'd gain a lot from this experience. I was able to meet amazing people from all over the world - so much knowledge to share and so much to learn; not to mention being able to participate in great events and share my passion (UX) with a wider audience.

Your UX portfolio should be tailored to the type of role you want to apply. So a portfolio from a UX researcher won't be the same as someone who's more focused on UI, for example. You should focus on presenting your best work & process, so recruiters and employers can easily understand how you work and what was your role on each project.

Ideally, you'll want to have "real" business case studies, but if you're just starting out, it's good that you include your own fictional exercises that highlight your thought process and framework. Only present your BEST work - 3 case studies are enough.

My biggest hurdle was the fact I started as a "generalist" and solo UX designer in the company I worked for (as many of us). Even though now I understand it was an invaluable experience and helped me define my main focus. The fact that I needed to drive the UX initiative & even evangelize it; the fact I was still learning a wide variety of things; the fact I had limited resources; and had to do the job of different professionals in the UX field with no team to support me (jack of all trades, master of none).

How were you able to market yourself to the extent of being noticed by Google? What advice would you give an up and coming UX designer who is yet to leave a mark but needs to get the attention of potential employers?

That's a very good question, and I wish there was a "right" answer or method that would 100% work for everyone. Honestly? I feel it was a mix of hard work, passion & dedication (because when you do what you love, it simply shines through), a bit of luck (there, I said it), and a good LinkedIn profile :)

Now, this also depends on each one's goals. My ultimate goal was to build my independent consulting business. Working on this project for Google was an experience and opportunity I felt I just couldn't pass on (and honestly, it brought me so much already and it's impossible to regret it). But if your ultimate goal is to work for a tech giant, then you should definitely work towards that goal - and you can start taking small steps towards that direction right from the beginning. For this type of companies, it's good to be referred by someone who already works there, so building a network is important. If you're just starting out, applying for an internship in a tech giant is a very realistic option as well. Persistence is key here.

More advice in general to UX designers to get the attention of potential employers, besides tweaking your LinkedIn profile if you haven't yet: Join UX communities (you're constantly learning from other designers and UX professionals); ensure you keep your portfolio updated where you showcase your best work and process (your website and portfolio need to reflect the type of work you want to attract, and also be connected to your goals, so treat your portfolio as any other UX project); if you are unable to showcase real business case studies because you don't have experience yet, take a pro-bono project (but ensure you get the commitment required for the tradeoff); if you aren't sure yet which aspect of UX you want to focus on, don't be afraid to take a "generalist" role (it's a great start!). And of course, keep applying to roles which interest you! Good luck.

2) the fact there's still so much misconception about UX and the different roles involved in delivering a good User Experience. User Experience is essential, not optional. It's also about your users; it's not a set of "tricks" to improve conversions. Companies need to research more before advertising certain roles (and I'm not blaming generalist roles here, because they'll always exist, and they make sense at some point);

3) In general, companies who have poor alignment of business goals with user needs. This often results in ignoring users in order to prioritize business conversions (at any cost) and calling this "User Experience" because they're simply conducting A/B testing to convert better. It's okay when people don't know it any better, but this is done consciously. It's not UX if you're not thinking about your users. As simple as that.

“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

I only work for companies with my same principles and ethics. Google, for example, is customer-centric, and so am I. I wouldn't want to charge my clients /users money if they aren't benefiting from my service.

I don't think it's as much about misunderstanding but more related to how early developers and engineers have been involved in the design and planning phase of the project. Generally speaking, it's normal that a developer will be more focused on the functionality and features of a website or app, being often unaware of the whole user journey / flow. However, it's important that both roles are aligned (UX & Development) in order to achieve the end goal - which should be the same: creating a product that delivers a great experience to its users.

So in the end, I think when misunderstandings happen more often than they should, the core issue has to do with the overall project management & collaboration (teamwork) aspects.

There's no shortcut or way around this. We can't claim to do user-centered design if we don't talk to the users.

Now, of course, there are different techniques and steps involved in this. When you're designing a product from scratch, you technically don't have "users" yet. You have potential users and a target audience. You need to reach out to these people. You need to interview them, observe them within the right context and environment, understand their motivations and pain points. It's this information (gathered during user research) that will allow you to draft the well known "personas". And with these personas in mind, you'll be able to create your first MVP.

The MVP is very important because it's when you'll get to see how people actually "behave" and use the product. It doesn't need to be "perfect", it simply needs to be viable.

I think it's fascinating to see how technology keeps developing so fast and how users' behaviors quickly shift to adapt to these rapid changes. It's what it's so interesting about UX. It's an ongoing process, where you are constantly adapting as tech evolves and your user needs + patterns shift.

UX design shouldn't be subjective. The only subjective part might occur when we base the first design decisions on assumptions when we don't have data yet. Even so, we should still follow best practices and conventions.

UX design is bad when a) you don't follow usability best practices / heuristics; b) you don't test it with your users.

Bottom line: You can't do user-centered design if you don't talk to your users. And not designing with your users in mind is bad design.

I don't encourage spending a lot of time working on something that hasn't been validated yet (with your users, but also with the stakeholders and team involved in the project).

In general, with a lean UX approach, you should avoid getting to a point where you've "wasted" too much time working on something that needs to be completely changed. If this happens, then something has gone wrong through the process, either during the requirements gathering, user research, etc.

That being said, constructive critique is always encouraged. Your work will be "evaluated" by usability experts, your team members, the stakeholders, and most importantly, your users. Remember, in the end, it's about the people who'll be using your product / interface / website / etc. Your users.

As both a designer and consultant, I always reinforce the fact that my recommendations are always subject to testing with real users. It is okay if you don't get everything right - technically if you're starting something from scratch, you don't have users yet, so you can't simply "guess". In that sense, I welcome "critique" because user feedback is invaluable, and your hypotheses being wrong is part of the validation process, they're still learnings that can be applied to improve the design and adapt it to your user needs.

User onboarding is the process of making your users understand your product and its benefits - it's essential. The more complex your product is, the more important this process is. But even for simpler products, you need to take some basic principles into account.

How I use user onboarding to help a business with their product, and what do I recommend in general:

- Ensure that your users are aware of how your product can benefit them;

- Ensure that your users know how to use your product to their benefit so they can make the most of it. For this purpose, and especially if your product is complex, you can use different techniques such as "tutorials", "product tours", "educational content", etc.

- If it's difficult for the users to understand the benefits without trying, consider implementing something like a "free trial" or "demo";

- Remember user onboarding applies to returning users who haven't used your product in a long time, or whenever your product goes through major updates.

I'm most excited about conversational design (chatbots and voice assistants) and the general development of voice-based interfaces. I'm hoping to see more voice-activated interfaces in the near future and looking forward to seeing any new technological developments that find a solution to current constraints.

UI is a subset of UX more focused on the visual aspect of the interface and as such, lots of practice is encouraged. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't start with some UX-focused theory first. I recommend getting started with a holistic view on UX - The Design of Everyday Things is a must read, but you can also take the Udacity course which is a great intro to design thinking. Tons of information on the Internet but I particularly also recommend Interaction Design's courses, which range from beginner to advanced level.

For UI, even if you already know that this is what you want to focus on, you still want to be aware of the user-centered process so you can collaborate with your team members better. Ensure you document the whole process in your portfolio & case studies, and explain your role and how you contributed to the team. Which brings us to the next step... The practical part.

You need to practice a lot - start designing! Pick the tool of your choice (Sketch and Figma are very popular in UI design at the moment, and they both have their pros & cons); get inspired (subscribe to inspiration feeds and see what others do); remember to follow conventions & patterns and keep usability & accessibility in mind (remember what you've learnt about UI design patterns and heuristics during the theory part); ask feedback from others; talk to potential users of your fictional project (even if you won't be focusing on user research, it doesn't hurt to understand the impact of it); and when you feel ready, take a pro-bono project to understand business constraints. There are some online bootcamps and UX practical courses that can help you on this journey too: For example Springboard (where I work as one of the mentors).

I help your business grow by improving the overall experience for your users. User Experience refers not only to your website but to any interaction your end-users have with your company. It's about not only making your product or system easy to use but also ensure that this interaction is pleasant and meaningful.

No, not at all. And since I think it's impossible to be able to be an expert at absolutely everything, I'm an apologist for focusing on what you do best. In fact, there are many different fields in UX and you should definitely focus on one.

Now a few things to note:

- It's good to have coding knowledge (the basics) to communicate with the developer and understand project constraints ;

- In UX, while it is better to be a "specialist" rather than a generalist, it's also true that you might benefit from a generalist role at the beginning of your career. This usually is the type of "solo UX designer" role where you're supposed to be able to do a little bit of everything (which generally though, doesn't involve coding). This will allow you to understand what you like best, and develop your skills further.

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AMAfeed is an AMA Search Engine.
We crawl the entire Internet looking for good sources of AMA's and bring them to you in a simple, easy to use interface.
We also own and operate a large network of dedicated AMA Event channels.
Each of our AMA Event channels encourages open, authentic, candid discussions that empowers our community to gain a better understanding of their chosen topics of interest via the AMA Event format.

All copyrights, trademarks, product names and logos appearing on the site are the property of their respective owners.

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